I Made Tiny Sliders On Pão De Queijo, And They Were Great!
I was making dinner with a friend the other night — whose contribution to the meal was pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese buns). I had never tried them, but anything Brazilian, especially buns, sounded right up my alley. Bonus points for the cheese, of course. So he whipped up a batch of impossibly liquidy batter, broke out the...well, I guess you can call it a 70s-era oven machine, and totally schooled me. The leftovers make incredible two-bite sandwiches for lunch. Slash, there are no leftovers.
The oven machine in question looks like an oversized casserole dish with a loose-fitting lid that you place on the counter and plug into the wall. Some call it an electric Dutch oven. Hey sometimes crappy old shared apartments in Prospect Heights don't have ovens, okay? But that doesn't mean you can't make a baller dinner. These buns that came out perfectly in that awkward contraption are made using five ingredients, require no kneading or rising time and bake up in 20 minutes or less. The batter that is so runny you will absolutely think you screwed up, but you didn't. This recipe will make one mini muffin tin's worth of pão de queijo:
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
- 1/2 cup crumbled cotija cheese
Combine ingredients in a large bowl with a large pinch of salt, pour into mini muffin tin 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up, Bake in a 400F oven for 20 minutes, let sit for 10 before popping them out.
SO EASY!
The insides are incredibly moist and chewy and infused with cheese and the outside is also infused with cheese. The whole thing is basically made of cheese held together with stretchy, starchy tapioca flour and a little egg to bind it. After the ones you didn't eat rest overnight, you can slice them in half using a small, sharp serrated knife and stuff them with anything that goes with cheese. That is one wide net. Here are some theme-appropriate ideas:
- Stewed black beans and more queijo
- Leftover steak and more queijo
- Sliced hard-boiled eggs and more queijo
- A tangy shrimp or two (probably just one, the pão are pretty small, but hey more sliders!)
- Glazed ham
- Avocado and chorizo
- Chicken liver mousse and something pickled
- Or give them a quick fry in a hot pan to crisp and plop them into tomato soup.
But like I said, that recipe is for one tray, or about 12 buns. So triple it, and begin your phase where you only eat food hacked into little pão de queijo sliders. May you continually experiment with larger muffin tins. Godspeed.
More cool little sandwiches for lunch on Food Republic: